Today's Headlines and Commentary

Andrew McCabe, the former acting FBI director, wrote a confidential memo last spring recounting details of the Comey firing, revealed the New York Times. The memo discussed conversations with Rod Rosenstein in which Rosenstein noted that Trump had asked him to specifically mention Russia in the memo justifying the firing.

The U.S.’s closest allies, including Canada, Mexico, and the EU, have announced retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., the Washington Post reports. These are in response to Trump’s 25 percent and 10 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports respectively, which will go into effect at midnight after having been delayed. The products chosen are targeted at Trump’s supporters in the hopes of creating political pressure.

But though a trade war seems imminent, Bloomberg argues, Trump’s real aim with the tariffs is to compel Europe to cooperate more closely on Iran. This continues Trump’s trend of tying together trade and security policy.

After employee and consumer backlash from its involvement with a Pentagon AI project, Google has begun working on a set of guidelines for its involvement with defense and intelligence contracts, according to Silicon Republic.

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Stephanie Zable is a third-year law student at the University of Michigan Law School focusing on international law and a second-year master's degree candidate at Johns Hopkins SAIS concentrating in strategic studies. Prior to law school, she lived in China for four years and spent a year traveling through Europe and Asia. She graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in math and politics.